Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said in a statement Friday that the loss of fish had a serious impact on local people and urged authorities to quickly find the cause. “This is an unprecedented, widespread and complicated environment incident in the country, and the authorities haven’t been able to identify the cause, leading to anger in society,” the statement said.

Agriculture and Rural Development Deputy Minister Vũ Văn Tám released a report to say that the only thing that could be to blame for killing the fish is a highly poisonous toxin. Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc has ordered an investigation.

WSJ went on to note that many of the protesters were blaming a new steel plant, Taiwan’s Formosa Plastics Group, located in an area heavy on foreign investments due to free-trade agreements with the country. A commenter named William Sites pointed out, “Some of the investors in Formosa’s complex are top government brass. Common knowledge in Vietnam. That’s the ‘rest of the story’.”